Why Other States Should Be Watching Sean Parker's California Legalization Initiative

Cannabis activists in California are likely suffering from tendonitis from all of the petitions they've needed to sign. As of the end of November, there were 18 proposals to legalize recreational cannabis in California. Of those, nine have been approved to gather the 365,880 signatures required to make it onto the 2016 ballot.

So what would legalization look like under this framework? Like most proposals, the CAUM Act would allow Californians aged 21 or over to carry one ounce of flower, grow a limited number of plants at home (up to 6 per residence in this case) and buy flower, extracts, concentrates and edibles at licensed retailers.

But the 88-page initiative also adds a lot of details that haven't appeared in other proposals. Here are five things that make this initiative distinct.

Criminal records can have devastating effects on people's lives - preventing them from getting jobs, housing, loans and even volunteer positions. The situation is particularly frustrating for residents still punished for something that is now legal in their home states.

Parker's initiative would spare Californians from legal limbo by including measures to apply the new cannabis laws retroactively. That means residents could begin applying for a fresh start as soon as the act became law.

2. Shatter-Proof Regulations

The Parker initiative includes more types of licenses than any legalization measure to date. There are five cultivation licenses based on the size (i.e. square-footage) of the grow site and whether it's indoors or outdoors.

On top of that, there are 6 types of commercial licenses, which cover retail, distribution, microbusiness (i.e. very small growers that act as their own distributor and retailer), testers, non-volatile solvent manufacturers and volatile solvent manufacturers.

Dealing with independent testers can be a hassle, but Nader argues that it's worth the frustration if it helps the cannabis industry avoid a disaster like the Volkswagen emissions scandal: "Why do you think this happened? It's because under federal law, they allowed private labs to do the testing," Nader said. "Watch out for control of these labs by your industry. That's when the problems are going to start."

Parker's initiative heeds that advice by keeping the testing labs and businesses separate.

4. Brunching with Your Best Buds

California will become the second state to host cannabis cafes if the CAUM Act becomes law.

But pot cafes weren't part of Alaska's original legislation, and much legal wrangling went into allowing them to operate: basically, the state's regulators didn't want any public use of any kind, but they conceded due to overwhelming pressure from Alaskans.

Parker's initiative would sidestep that hassle by making onsite smoking, vaping and edible-ing part of the law.

5. Brand Recognition

One easy-to-overlook regulation is that cannabis grown in one region can't be named after another. So a grower in Fresno County can't name his crop something like, "San Diego Sunset."

As Russ Belville notes, that means famous growing areas like Mendocino and Humboldt will be protected from unscrupulous marketers using each county's name to boost sales. It's almost like copyright protection for cannabis strains, which is somewhat ironic coming from the infamous Napster founder.

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